1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system which includes one or more flash memory devices which can be programmed by way of a radio link.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flash memory devices are known in the art and are typically used in computer systems for storing certain program instructions, such as the basic input/output system (BIOS). The flash memory devices normally include a protected area which includes sufficient software to enable the system to be rebooted in the event that the data in the flash memory device becomes corrupt. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/885,805, filed on May 15, 1992 and assigned to the same assignee as the assignee of the present invention, discloses a computer system which includes a flash memory device for storing the BIOS. In order to enable the system to be rebooted in the event of a flash disaster, a special-purpose parallel port is provided. The special-purpose parallel port switches from a standard peripheral interface mode to a special-purpose interface when the flash memory device becomes corrupt. In the special-purpose interface mode, the parallel port enables the BIOS to be executed from an external ROM or another personal computer. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/469,206, filed on Jun. 6, 1995, also assigned to the same assignee as the assignee for the present invention, also relates to a computer system which utilizes flash ROM for BIOS. In this system the BIOS initialization functions are stored in the boot lock or protected area of the flash memory device in order to enable the flash memory device to be reprogrammed when the data becomes corrupt.
Such flash memory devices may be updated by various means, for example by way of a serial port, a parallel port or even a floppy disk. The '206 patent application discloses a flash programming utility to enable multiple types of flash memory devices to be programmed with a single utility. As such, updating of the flash memory devices with such a utility is relatively quicker than other flash memory device programming utilities which are generally hardware-specific and thus only allow for programming of a single specific type of a flash memory device.
As mentioned above, the flash memory devices are heretofore known to be programmed by way of a parallel port, serial port or by way of a floppy disk. In all such cases, the programming of the flash memory device must be done at the computer system in which the flash memory device is used.